Happy Birthday, Big Brother
by precious-passenger
Summary: Sam celebrating Dean's birthday in the bunker. Written for a prompt for Dean Winchester's birthday!


**Title: A Birthday for Big Brother**  
><strong>Characters: Dean, Sam, Castiel, Kevin, Charlie, Garth<strong>  
><strong>Pairing: Gen<strong>  
><strong>Rating: PG<strong>

* * *

><p>Dean was about to enter when he heard a voice coming from inside the room, and he stopped to listen.<p>

"I want to bake a cake...I have a cake to bake..." Sam sang softly, stirring a bowl of what Dean assumed was batter.

"Sammy? Whatcha doing?"

"I'm baking a cake. Well, at least, trying to..."

"Are you sure you don't want me to help? I don't think that the batter is supposed to be brown just yet."

"Oh," the younger brother sighed, looking like a lost puppy.

"I got this Sam. Go and take a shower. You smell like a housewife," Dean teased.

"But the surprise..." Sam insisted.

"I'm sure you burning down the kitchen is not that much of a pleasant surprise to me," he quipped.

Sam stuck his tongue out but otherwise obliged, looking defeated. Baking and cooking wasn't exactly his forte. Researching recipes had been easy, but that was all he could contribute to the culinary world.

Dean put the last batch of cake in the oven before turning to face a dressed up Sam.

"Hey, man. You look good." The older Winchester smiled as he took in the sight of his brother wearing a dark blue ensemble. He grinned, moving to ruffle the young man's hair and receiving a glare from Sam in return.

"Sammy, I checked the fridge while you were gone. Tell me again why we need all this stuff?" he asked in wonder.

"We have guests," Sam announced, "they should be here in about half an hour or so."

"Umm, what? Who?"

"There's Garth, Kevin, Charlie, and C..."

Before Sam could finish, Castiel appeared about half a foot away from Sam with the usual flutter of wings.

"Speak of the d-angel," Sam greeted, laughing at his brother's obviously annoyed face.

"Cas!" Dean scolded. "Personal space, dude!"

"My apologies, Dean," he finally said, after assessing his surroundings and took a step back. "You look nice."

Dean didn't look exactly like a normal person's definition of 'nice'. His hair and clothes were peppered with flour, causing a small white cloud to appear whenever he moved.

"Happy birthday, my friend," the angel said holding up a wrapped box. "I understand that we have to bring gifts for this occasion."

"Umm, yeah. Thanks, Cas," Dean said awkwardly, taking the box from him while Sam watched in amusement. He chuckled, imagining how adamantly he had threatened everyone not to forget their gifts.

"Man, I should go take a shower," he said, sniffing distastefully at his shirt. "I stink like baking powder."

"You smell like a housewife, Dean!" Sam teased lightly, barely ducking in time to avoid the flying spoon Dean had thrown his way.

"Screw you, Sam!" the older brother said, pretending to be angry. He stomped out of the room, threatening to shave off Sam's hair in his sleep if he let anything happen to the cake before he left.

Castiel finally looked at Sam.

"How should we protect the cake?"

"By not letting anyone eat it until Dean gives the okay."

At the same time the doorbell rang and Sam and Castiel went to open the door.

"Where's the birthday boy?" the newcomer asked as Sam guided them back to the hall.

"Dean! Get your ass over here. The rest of the gang has arrived," Sam shouted loudly.

Sam's heart did a flip as he recognized a loud bark of laughter from the general direction of the bedrooms and smiled. Maybe things were going well after all.

Dean had entered the main hall, where Sam had decorated the walls and filled the place with balloons.

He didn't have time to dwell much as he was wrapped in a tight hug that could only belong to Garth.

The Winchester chuckled lightly, feeling the scrawny man attempt to squeeze the life out of him. He clapped him on the shoulder, that being the signal for Garth to let go.

"Happy birthday, Dean. Man, this is the perfect party."

"'Sup bitches?" The men all turned towards the voice, seeing a familiar redhead leaning against the doorframe. "I heard there was going to be cake?"

Dean smiled. "Hey, Charlie. Glad you could make it."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Dean," she winked, walking into the room. "Besides, I figured that after nearly getting me killed twice, the least you could do is throw a party and invite me."

She and the older Winchester exchanged a warm hug.

"By the way," Charlie added, "I let some kid named Kevin in? He's saying hello to Dean, I think."

"Not anymore," the prophet grinned, entering from behind, "Happy birthday, man."

Dean thanked Kevin, watching him make small talk with Charlie. The kid looked happier than he had been in a while, almost like that innocent kid back in high school. It made Dean's heart ache to think about what they had ripped him away from.

Their guests were busy making themselves comfortable and stacking the presents on a table. Dean watched Sam scratch the back of his neck self consciously and clear his throat.

"Uh... is this too much?" He shifted on his feet.

"You should have become a party designer, Sammy," Dean joked, grinning widely at the amount of effort that his younger sibling had put into the party.

"Shut up. This is just for my brother." Sam barked, but he was smiling all the same.

"Thanks, Sam. This is... amazing."

"Amazing? It's awesome, Dean," the older Winchester said, looking pleased with himself.

Sam left Dean to hand out birthday hats, practically forcing them to wear it. Dean's hat was considerably bigger and longer than others. He wasn't sure if it was because it was his birthday, or if Sam was making fun of him somehow.

The older Winchester went off to the bathroom for a moment and returned to complete darkness.

"So when do we light the candles?" Dean heard Cas ask loudly from somewhere in the room. He also heard Sam mutter a "Dammit, Cas," before the room was suddenly lit up with the gentle glow of birthday candles.

The beauty of that gentle glow, however, was ruined when the guests started singing the traditional "Happy Birthday". It was loud and incredibly obnoxious, but hilarious all the same. Dean's jaw was starting to hurt from smiling so much. He was quickly ushered into a seat as Sam placed the cake in front of him.

"As you can see, you have exactly thirty-four candles, Dean!"

"Aw, man. Thank you!" he replied, excited.

Dean was about to blow the candles out when Charlie bumped his arm and said, "Don't forget about your free wish."

Dean chuckled, closing his eyes. What was he supposed to wish for? It felt stupid to even bother with the birthday act. Things like wishes never came true for him-unless it was a twisted wishing well-or anyone he cared for. It was a well known fact.

_Come on Dean, humor the universe._

He ended up wishing for his brother to continue laughing and them being happy together as a family. It was cheesy, but if it came true, Dean was willing to believe in anything.

After taking generous slices and several helpings of the cake, the gang followed the tradition by smearing cream all over Dean's face, causing him to say not so appropriate words. Sam took what was left of the cake to the kitchen afterwards, announcing that it was time for Dean to open his presents.

The group gathered in the middle of the too small living room, cheeks hurting from laughing so much. Most of the laughter was about the interaction between Kevin and Castiel. The two bonded quickly: the prophet willingly took the role of "Birthday Tradition Extraordinaire", guiding Cas on how to survive his first human birthday party.

"We're going to sit down, and Dean's going to open his gifts," the prophet whispered to the angel.

"Do Dean and the gift giver exchange heavy makeout session in heaven? Should I alert my brothers to give us some privacy?" Castiel asked.

"No, that's seven minutes in heaven… and a little bit of spin the bottle. Never mind that. Just sit down," Kevin replied as he took several deep breaths.

"So, would the party planner little brother like to do the honors of presenting the first gift?" Charlie asked, pointing to the pile of presents in front of them.

Sam gestured at the room and the food, shrugging.

"Happy birthday," he sing-songed lamely.

"Are you saying that you didn't get your brother a present?" Garth asked disapprovingly.

"Nope, kinda forgot. Now...who's this from?" Sam said, and succeeded in diverting the group's attention. The first gift was picked up and inspected, with everyone making guesses at what it could be.

The redhead identified the present as her own from the snitches on the wrapping paper. She handed it to Dean, smirking.

"Thanks, Charlie for the… magazines… and..."

"That's lube," she provided helpfully.

Dean thanked her again distractedly, mentally planning to hide the… stuff before his brother cracked any more dirty joke.

After opening all the presents and using every opportunity to make fun of Dean, the group slowly left, despite the Winchesters insisting that they had more than enough rooms for them to stay.

Whoever thought that a party was a good idea probably hadn't had to stay afterwards. The brothers had spent more than two hours washing dishes, cleaning up the garbage and various spills, and storing the few leftovers in the fridge before Dean was satisfied. As they walked to their own rooms, each reliving the day, Sam turned to his brother.

"Hey, Dean?" Sam called, staring down at his feet and shuffling awkwardly. Dean had to suppress a grin. Some things never changed.

"Yeah?"

"You didn't actually believe that I forgot your gift?"

"Nah. That trick is actually getting old, little brother."

"Well, yeah. Anyway, here it is."

Sam presented a small box, wrapped in a cheesy balloon-themed wrapping.

"The clerk insisted on it," Sam defended, seeing his brother smirk. However, Dean wasn't fooled. His brother was a professional gift-wrapper and secretly loved it, both getting and receiving proper gifts.

"Thanks, dude."

His brother shifted his weight on his feet, swaying slightly as Dean opened the carefully wrapped paper.

"Sam... " Dean breathed.

"I know it's probably lame but..." Sam trailed off, eyes glued to assess his brother's reaction.

"You got me an amulet necklace," Dean said, inspecting the object in his hand more closely.

"Yeah, I thought about getting Cas to find the one that you'd… left behind. But then I thought, I should get you a new one, you know. As a symbol to new beginnings."

"Thanks man."

"There's also this," Sam said, producing another gift and popping it into Dean's hand.

"An ipod deck? And a CD of Metallica?" Dean said, pretending to get angry. "I'm not getting this anywhere near my baby."

Sam tried not to pout at that, but Dean's soft expression told him he'd failed.

"I'll put it on one of the cars we have in the garage. Just not my baby."

"Okay, Dean," Sam said, shaking his head. This was probably as good as it would get.

"Happy Birthday!" he continued, shoving Dean playfully.

_Happy birthday, big brother._


End file.
